Two suicide car bombers attacked a police station Sunday in western Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 82, police said. The bombs exploded as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Cairo on the first stop of a four-nation regional tour aimed at winning Arab support for his embattled government. The first driver raced through a police checkpoint guarding the station and exploded his vehicle just outside the two-story building, police said. Moments later, a second suicide car bomber aimed at the checkpoint's concrete barriers and exploded just outside them, police said. The blasts collapsed nearby buildings, smashing windows and burying at least four cars under piles of concrete. Metal roofs were peeled back by the force of the explosions. Pools of blood made red mud of a dusty driveway. ... http://www.cbsnews.com

A jury awarded $9 million to a black man who suffered permanent brain damage after being beaten and dumped in a field by four white men in 2003. Billy Ray Johnson, 46, lives in a nursing home because of the injuries he suffered in the beating. In the criminal case, the men accused of assaulting him were fined and sentenced to probation and jail time, but none served more than 60 days behind bars. In a four-day civil trial in District Court that ended Friday, jurors found James Cory Hicks and Christopher Colt Amox responsible for Johnson's injuries. Defendants Dallas Chadwick Stone and John Wesley Owens previously reached confidential settlements, attorneys said. A jury of 11 whites and one black deliberated less than four hours before returning a unanimous verdict, said attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of Johnson. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/22/national/main2714574.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2714574

At least six people have been killed and several wounded after two explosions hit the town of Khost in eastern Afghanistan, local police say. The first blast, which occurred in a shop in the town's busy market, killed two people, police reported. The second explosion, this time the work of a suicide bomber, killed two people and injured two police. Khost, which is near the border with Pakistan and an area of Taleban activity, has seen frequent violence. Khost province borders the Pakistani tribally-administered area of North Waziristan, where a peace deal signed with militants and tribal elders last year saw the Pakistani army pull out. US forces say the deal has led to an increase in violence on the Afghan side of the border. Bloodshed in Afghanistan last year returned to levels not seen since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, with the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, and Khost and other areas in the east of the country particularly hard-hit....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6580779.stm

Thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets of Caracas in protest at the president's decision to close the country's oldest private TV network. Mr Chavez's supporters say Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) backed a 2002 coup which briefly ousted him. But the country's opposition say the decision to close the network is an attempt to silence Mr Chavez's critics. Many of those who turned out for Saturday's protest carried national flags and placards. "Freedom of speech is a right, as is the right to be informed," said 72-year-old Pablo Mosco from the capital's Catia slum district. The government claims that the channel is breaching the constitution by rallying support for the opposition. Near the demonstration, hundreds of Mr Chavez's supporters wearing red caps and T-shirts staged a rival rally to express their support for the closure of RCTV, which has been broadcasting for 33 years....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6580863.stm

Israeli Arab MP Azmi Bishara has resigned, weeks after leaving the country amid a police investigation into unspecified criminal allegations. He tendered his resignation at the Israeli embassy in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and said he would stay abroad for a while. Mr Bishara is an outspoken critic of policies toward the Palestinians He leads the National Democratic Assembly (Balad), which has three members in the 120-seat Knesset. "Exile is not an option. Return is definite but the matter will take some time and arrangements, I want to set the rules of the game," Mr Bishara told the Arab news channel al-Jazeera. "I have commitments now with other countries which I cannot make if I were there. This is why I decided to end my responsibilities with my former post." ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6581105.stm

Fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing the Somali government eased slightly on Sunday, giving hospitals a chance to care for the dozens of wounded civilians who fell victim to fierce shelling and gunbattles the day before. A government official, however, warned on Sunday that it planned to move against the insurgents soon and called on Mogadishu residents to move from insurgent strongholds. Two main hospitals said they admitted 26 civilians wounded during Sunday's fighting. The casualties by midmorning contrasted sharply with the toll from the previous day, when the Elman Human Rights Organization and hospital officials said heavy fighting in northern and southern Mogadishu killed at least 52 people and wounded 120. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3065082